Skimming the surface of Malaysian football

MALAYSIAN football has never been at a healthier state.

On paper, at least.

In terms of high office, FA of Malaysia (FAM) president Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin, has reached rarefied heights as a member of the FIFA council. The 57-year-old former banker is certainly punching above his weight category.

The former FA of Selangor executive secretary-turned FAM general secretary-turned FAM president is only the fourth Malaysian to be accorded the privilege of being a member of FIFA.

His predecessors who had gone through FIFA’s corridors of power were the late Lim Kee Siong, the late Tan Sri Hamzah Abu Samah (when it was known as the FIFA executive committee) and the present Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al Mustafa Billah Shah.

In terms of performance on the pitch, the signs are encouraging.

The Harimau Malaya, under the guidance of Kim Pan-gon, advanced to the semi-finals of the AFF Cup in January, despite having to rely on an entirely different crew from the squad that earned a ticket to the final of the AFC Asian Cup, six months earlier.

Critics and fans alike seem smitten by the team’s playing style under South Korean Pan-gon, who has impressed upon his players the need to impose their game on the opponents.

The fans look forward to Malaysia’s first appearance in the final in Qatar early next year since Norizan Bakar helmed a team that competed as one of the four hosts in 2007.

The last time Malaysia qualified for the tournament in its previous existence was under the late Datuk Mohamad Bakar in 1979, before the late Mohamad Che Su brought the team to the final in 1980.

The league, the livewire of domestic football, has a slew of new sponsors.

Malaysia Football League (MFL), a body established to operate the league independent of FAM, have attracted among others a foreign bank and a hypermarket chain to be their partners.

Most importantly, MFL have also managed to sell the league’s broadcasting rights to a tune of more than RM40 million.

Astro, the country’s first sports channel who helped raise the profile of the league from 2011 to 2015, is back as the host broadcaster, with terrestrial Government channel RTM also investing a bigger stake than ever.

As the public gravitate towards football, the Youth and Sports Ministry naturally wants to ride on the game’s massive appeal, offering big screen showings of selected Super League matches.

But in skimming the surface, MFL’s new league structure for the elite, unveiled this season, will be subjected to great scrutiny.

Under the new structure, the Premier League has been scrapped, with semi-pro clubs under M3 given the chance to earn promotion to Super League if they meet all the financial and sustainability guidelines.

For that to happen, the Amateur Football League (AFL) that run the M3 and below have to be financially sustainable and cannot be left to fend for themselves.

MFL have also revived the Reserve League which used to be the curtain raiser to the match of the day when the league was run by FAM in the 90s. Renaming it the MFL Cup, the league features 15 teams but not considered as the third-tier.

Due to this, the Super League clubs are no longer obligated to field a team in the President’s Cup and the Youth Cup, two youth pathway competitions under FAM’s auspices.

Compared to 19 teams last year, only 17 teams will be taking part in the President’s Cup, a competition for Under-20 players, while 13 teams have registered for the Under-18 Youth Cup, as opposed to 18 last year.

And at a time when the spotlight falls upon the Super League, one wonders if FAM’s 20 affiliates – 14 of them state FAs tasked to develop the game at district and state-level, as well as harness the growth of referees and youth players – are fixing the fundamentals to create the ideal eco-system.

If they fail to do their part, I fear the amount of money being splurged on top of the pyramid will not serve the greater good of the game. Ultimately, success in football is measured through the performance of the national team.